SoundBox

Perhaps the quickest way to get started is to open one of the demo songs and start playing with it.

Start by pressing the button, and select one of the songs. Once it has been opened, press the button to start the song.

Note: The entire song has to be generated (i.e. synthesized in software) before it can be played. This can take some time, but on a fast computer it should not take more than ten seconds or so for normal song.

A song is made up of 8 channels, where each channel has its own instrument. Each channel has 36 note patterns (0-9,A-Z), and each note pattern has 4 note tracks and 1 FX track.

In this section you can import (open) and export (save) songs. Here you can also play the song (or just a section of the song).

Each column in the sequencer represents one channel. Selecting a column will show the instrument settings for the selected channel in the instrument editor (4).

For each channel, there are 36 available note patterns. By typing a number (0-9) or a letter (A-Z) in a sequencer cell (or by using the / buttons below the sequencer), the corresponding note pattern will be visible and editable in the pattern editor (3). Holding shift while typing the character will also advance the cursor to the next row.

It is possible to select a range in the sequencer (by click+dragging), and then copy the selected range with the button, and the copied range can then be pasted to any other position with the button.

Hitting enter with a range selected fills the empty space in that range by looping or interpolating the values at the top of the range. For example:

• 1,(empty),(empty),(empty),(empty) becomes 1,1,1,1,1.
• 1,2,(empty),(empty),(empty) becomes 1,2,3,4,5.
• 1,2,1,(empty),(empty) becomes 1,2,1,2,1.

The pattern editor consists of four columns, which enables four notes to be played simultaneously. There is also an effect track (FX track), that can be used to dynamically control all aspects of an instrument during playback.

The note editor

To enter notes in the pattern editor, a valid pattern (0-9,A-Z) must have been selected in the sequencer. Notes are entered with the piano (5), the keyboard or a MIDI input device (see below).

Just as with the sequencer, it is possible to copy and paste note data with the & buttons. It is also possible to transpose a selected range of notes with the , , and buttons.

Hitting enter with a range selected fills the empty space in that range by looping the notes in the top part of that range.

The FX editor

To enter commands in the FX editor, select a row in the FX track, and modify one of the instrument parameters. The corresponding command + value will be entered into the selected row.

You can copy and paste FX commands with the & buttons.

Please note that FX commands are persistent, so if a command for a specific instrument parameter is issued in one pattern, it will remain active until set to something else (either in the same or another pattern).

Hitting enter with a range selected interpolates between the effect parameters. The range has to be empty and the command in the beginning and in the end of the same type.

An instrument is synthetically generated using a few simple building blocks, according to the chart below:

Each part of the instrument chain is controlled by the instrument settings, and with careful tuning you can produce many different kinds of sounds.

An easy way to get started with an instrument is to select one of the presets from the drop-down box, and then change some settings until you get the sound you are looking for.

The piano is used for entering notes into the selected note pattern. Pressing keys on the piano will produce notes in the pattern.

A more efficient way to enter notes is to use the computer keyboard (if you have one). The mapping of keyboard keys to piano keys are as follows:

Both the piano and the keyboard only covers two octaves. To reach more octaves, use the and keys next to the piano to change the base octave for the piano/keyboard.

Using a MIDI device

It is also possible to use a MIDI input device to enter notes. You can select which input device to use in a drop down box above the instrument editor (if no MIDI device is available, no drop down box will be shown).

A tip: Playing the entire song over and over when editing music can be quite tiresome. Use the button to just play the selected range (e.g. a single pattern). You can also use the keyboard short-cut: space.

Songs can be saved as data URLs or as binary files.

You can deal with the data URLs in pretty much any way you want. For instance, you can mail the song to a friend, bookmark it in your browser, put it through an URL shortener and tweet it, or you can copy & paste it to a local text file if you wish to save it for later.

Note: The entire song is stored in the URL. Nothing is stored in a file or on a server.

The binary files, that are saved if you press the "Save binary" button in the Save dialog, can later be loaded by drag'n'dropping them onto the editor.

Importing Sonant songs

It is also possible to import binary song files that have been exported from the Sonant or Sonant Live sound editors. Simply drag'n'drop a file from your computer onto the editor to load it.

Note: Sonant songs are converted to the SoundBox format, which means that some subtle differences from the original may be noticeable.

The real use case for SoundBox is to produce music that you can use in your own products. To do so, export your song as a JavaScript data chunk using the "Export song as JavaScript" button.